Where Loyalties Lie
by hilzanne
Summary: Karai holds her contract. She is honor-bound to obey her every word. But there is far more to this silent assassin than hook swords and mindlessly following orders. But does Karai have more to fear than the turtles when it comes to her faithful employee?


"One known as Karai. The human expected to arrive at this place has arrived at this place."

"Good. Send her in." Karai stared out the frosty glass of the abandoned church she and her father called home.

_Father,_ she thought. Ever since Leonardo had tried to tell her that Shredder was not, in fact, her father, she took the word with a grain of salt. She could not believe him, of course. Oroku Saki _was_ her father. She had never known anything different.

Rage boiled deep in her chest as she cast her eyes upon the few cars on the streets below. Karai pulled a crumbling piece of paper from her pocket and examined it. The sheet was nearly ten years old and terribly fragile. She began to read the familiar words just as the large doors behind her screeched open. Neatly folding the paper and placing it back in her pocket, she turned around and met a familiar set of eyes.

_Tonight, we will silence the turtles. For good._

Raphael lay on his back, half staring at the stars and half listening to his brothers' ramblings. A lot had happened in the past few weeks. April was half Kraang, giant alien worms had been causing earthquakes, Master Splinter nearly lost his life to a tiger assassin. And he had lost Spike.

A certain star seemed to twinkle at Raph from the heavens. He recognized it as Betelgeuse, one of the only stars he could actually name and find easily. He liked it because it was distinctly reddish, not blue like the majority of stars around it. It was the shoulder of Orion, the warrior. Just like himself.

A paper football smacked the side of his head, snapping him out of his pleasant distraction. Raphael rolled off his carapace into a sitting position and glared across the rooftop at a guilty-looking Michelangelo. He rolled his eyes and stood, knees creaking as he moved them. Slowly, he made his way over to Donatello and April who were chatting about her malfunctioning laptop.

"Well, if there's no Kraang activity tonight, I guess we could track some mutagen," said Leonardo in a bored voice from the edge of the roof.

Raphael snorted. "Great, I was hoping to go on a wild goose chase tonight."

Donnie sighed and slowly stood, helping April to her feet as well. "I know it's boring Raph, but we need to get it back. I could use more to experiment with anyway."

Leo stood up and stretched. "Come on guys, let's get a move on. Mikey?"

Michelangelo was hanging upside-down from a billboard ladder, preparing to launch another paper football at his hot-tempered brother. "Yeah, I'm coming," he said, defeated as he climbed down.

"Guys, can we maybe take it kind of slow since there isn't much activity tonight? I'd like to be able to keep up this time," April asked.

"You've gotta learn to keep up, Red," Raphael said as he twisted his back and swung his arms. "I know you hate being left behind, but we have to whip you into shape."

Leo walked over to his brothers. "We'll make sure you can keep pace with us tonight, April. Don't worry," he said, patting her on the shoulder.

Donatello rummaged in his bag for the makeshift mutagen tracker. Just as he was about to stand up, Raphael heard something whiz by his head.

"Whoa! What just about hit me?" He spun around quickly, searching for the source.

"Agh!" April shouted and buckled to her knees. Donnie rushed over to her.

"What's wrong? Did you get hit with something?" he fretted.

She shook her head and whipped around to look across a few buildings. "I sense someone. Someone-"

Before April could finish her sentence, a barrage of shuriken flew at the group. They sprang apart from each other, avoiding the rain of weapons. Raphael deftly hopped across the roof, picking up a shuriken as he went. The emblem was a distinctive foot.

"Foot Clan, inbound!" he shouted to his brothers as they reconvened in the middle of the roof.

A sly, familiar voice sounded from a few buildings away.

"Sorry boys, it's just me tonight."

"Karai," Five voices said at once.

The turtles and April all drew their weapons, awaiting the imminent fight. Karai's dark figure landed before them, but she was not alone.

"Thought I might introduce you to an employee of mine. Mariko!" she called harshly.

A second figure emerged from the shadows. She wore an identical outfit to Karai, save for its unique jade color. The girl was several inches shorter than her employer, and she wore her chestnut hair in a samurai-style top-knot. She seemed meek and small compared to the confident, overpowering Karai.

Raphael's breath hitched in his throat as he met the girl's eyes. Emerald green, just like his own. They held each other's gaze for a few moments, like magnets.

"She grew up being brainwashed to obey the orders of anyone who holds her contract. And guess who that is?" Karai smiled deviously. Mariko's eyes were still locked onto Raphael.

"So what, she's your personal slave or something?" Raph spit fire at her.

"Mariko is my loyal employee," she said defensively. "She is honor-bound to do as I tell her. My father brought her back from Japan with him, just in case that oversized house cat didn't finish you off."

Karai drew her wakizashi, signaling Mariko to do the same. She drew two hooked swords from her back and took a fighting stance. Green ribbon tails fluttered in the breeze from the handles of her swords. They perfectly matched the ribbon securing her top-knot.

All four turtles began to brandish their weapons, ready for a fight. Raph saw April guard herself behind them, but still had her tessen at the ready.

"Mariko?" Karai turned her head towards the short kunoichi. The girl looked back without a word. "I believe it's time we silence these turtles once and for all."

And so it began. Karai immediately lunged for Leonardo, and their swords came together with a _clang. _Michelangelo joined his brother in blue, swinging his nunchaku fiercely. Donatello swung his bo at Mariko's legs, attempting to unbalance her as Raphael flew in behind him. She was fast, however, and caught the staff in the hooks of her swords. She ripped it from his hands and slung it across the rooftop. While Donatello was stunned, she push-kicked him straight in the plastron and sent him flying back, nearly taking Raphael down with him. April ran to his side.

"You may be able to out-speed Donnie, but not me," Raph glowered at his opponent.

She met his gaze with equal intensity, but remained silent as their eyes were once again magnetized together. Raph lunged with all his weight.

Sais met swords in a boisterous _clang_. Their weapons scraped against one another, crossed between the two warriors. Each was trying to out-muscle the other. Raphael gritted his teeth and pushed against the hook swords with all his might.

_For how tiny she is, she definitely has some power,_ he thought to himself.

Suddenly her eyes widened and she quickly deflected April's tessen with the crescent guard of her sword, breaking her connection with Raph's sais and stumbling back a few feet. He turned quickly to see April helping Donatello to his feet.

Karai and Leonardo were locked in a constant push and pull, neither able to gain the upper hand. Mikey abandoned Leo to grab Donnie's bo staff and darted across the roof to return it.

"Donnie!" he called and tossed the staff to his tallest brother.

Raphael watched Mariko's eyes fall on Karai, who had been backed up against the billboard ladder. She quickly hooked both of her swords together and swung them straight at Leo. It knocked one of the katana out of his hand from nearly six feet away. Raph could not help but be slightly impressed by her resourcefulness. The feeling quickly faded when Karai took the opportunity to throw a kunai at the distracted Raphael. He easily deflected it with a sai and refocused his intentions on Mariko.

Donatello swooped in behind Raph, crying out as he brought the bo staff low, knocking the small kunoichi off her feet. Both brothers hovered over her, threatening her with their weapons and standing on her swords.

"Mariko! What's your problem?" Karai spewed furiously. "I thought I told you to-"

Karai was cut off by a tessen striking her across the jaw. Her lower lip began to bleed and she stumbled back before Leo and Mikey forced her against the billboard ladder. April hurried over to grab her fan.

"Sorry, Karai. Looks like you lose this round," Leo said through a smile.

Raph kept a sai pointed at Mariko's face. "Your little _employee_ couldn't quite handle us."

Even in defeat, Raphael could not help but notice a calm, if not slightly irritated, expression on the young kunoichi. Her emerald eyes still shone brightly back at him.

Karai quickly slithered out of the grasp of the two turtles and charged at full speed towards Raph and Donnie. She knocked them away from Mariko, who threw a smoke bomb almost instantly. When the smoke cleared, the two girls were gone.

"Well, that was surprisingly brief," Leo said as he picked up his katana.

April scoffed and slid her tessen closed. "That was... Weird."

Donnie examined his bo staff, picking at a small knick in the wood. "I think the mutagen can wait until another night, guys. That's about enough excitement for me."

Leonardo nodded. "Agreed. Let's pack it in."

Raphael slid his sais back into his belt as Mikey grumbled about not being able to get enough good hits in on Karai. They all began to head back towards the lair, but Raph could not shake the feeling that something had been strange about Karai's new employee. The image of her eyes locked onto his was still burned in his mind.

"Is it just me, or do you get the feeling that won't be the last time we see that chick?" April asked her turtle brothers.

No one could disagree.


End file.
